The Little Mermaid

The differences between Hans Christen Andersen’s Little Mermaid and Disney’s are astronomical. The Little Mermaid doesn’t have a name but like Ariel, she is obsessed with the human world and wants to become one once she falls in love with the Prince. The only problem is going to the evil sea witch, or Ursula, as we know in Disney’s version.

The condition of Ariel losing her voice is the same as in the original except that she loses her tongue completely creating her mute. In the original, she also will have the ability to dance amazingly and she also has foot pain that will never subside. The fine print of the situation, if she doesn’t marry the Prince, she will die.

The Little Mermaid doesn’t get her happy ending in the original either. The Prince is in love with who he thinks saved his life and in turn marries her leaving the Little Mermaid to die brokenhearted.

Clearly Disney needed to make some changes to allow their movie to be appropriate for the children viewers. The original work doesn’t even seem to actually be much of a fairy tale and in fact was under critiques many times for lack of being a fairy tale. Both stories though show that love has much power and control in someone’s life.